Pressure
by adventuresinstorybrooke
Summary: Emma is, for the first time, facing her parents. But magic has rolled into town and now her body is weak, and she's on the verge of collapsing. Why? Chronicles her progression from the hospital to the reunion. AU. Requested on Tumblr. One-shot.


**Requested on Tumblr, for naynaywarbler. Hope you like it :)**

The billowing cloud slams into her like a semi moving at eighty miles per hour. But the force doesn't displace her or knock her over, it just pulls her every pore toward the earth's center with more force than she could have ever imagined. Her knees buckle slightly and her head feels as though it might roll completely off her shoulders. Emma's eyes waver in and out of focus, and the room dips in varying spots on her vision.

She hasn't slept in nearly forty eight hours, between fighting a dragon all through the night to early morning, and spending the night before that trying to run away. She's just tired, that's all.

As soon as the smoke clears, her eyes immediately travel to Henry. His color has returned and he seems relatively unscathed. She allows herself to exhale a sigh of relief.

Upon the inhale, her chest feels tighter. _I just really need some sleep. _Maybe she could just lay down for a while. Though she knows she can't; Henry has already located his clothing, is almost entirely dressed, and will want to leave soon. She places a hand on the edge of his hospital bed to steady herself. She can't let him see that she doesn't feel well. No. "Well" isn't the word for it. That just sounds like an illness. THIS feels more like she's a clock whose pendulum is undulating at an irregular rhythm.

Everything is out of balance, as though her body is no longer made to support her. She feels like she might fall out of her own skin.

"Emma we have to go find them!" Henry calls out suddenly. _Them._ Reality is cruel, that's for damn sure.

On top of her current state, she's completely unprepared for what's going to happen next. She's weak—facing them now could lead to very bad things. She knows her emotions won't be controllable. She doesn't even know if she'll unleash anger or a bucket of tears. Or maybe she'll just freeze. Freezing would be good; better than the other options anyways.

Her scalp is crawling with needles and her breathing is becoming more labored. _Maybe it's all just anxiety. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. _

The Blue Fairy approaches Emma, her eyes rapidly scouring the Saviour's face. She knows something is wrong. The blonde woman is even paler than normal, her chest is contracted, and her pupils are wide and glassy. She's seen this before.

"Emma, are you alright?" she asks, reaching up a hesitant hand to touch the side of Emma's face. Emma looks at her abruptly, but her expression is vacant.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired." She rushes to exit the room, with Henry in tow. The hospital walls feel like they are closing in and claustrophobia is suffocating her. She races through the doorway, her steps labored and uneven—she just has to get into the fresh air.

As she stumbles forward she hears Mother Superior calling after her. The words are muffled, every sound around her is. But she makes out enough of it to be able to ignore the words and keep moving.

"_Emma you two need to rest! There is magic in the air now! You aren't used to it!"_

The last thing Emma swears she hears is "_Especially YOU Emma!" _before they make it to the stairwell. The tiers swell in all directions but somehow she manages to make it down. Henry runs ahead and exits through the front door. Emma follows as quickly as possible but the minute she emerges into the bright sunlight her body screams in pain.

It feels like her head might explode from the overwhelming pressure. Her knees wilt further and her hands reach for something, anything, to steady her. Luckily, Henry is there. "You're just nervous," he tries to assure her.

He leads her slowly down the street. The world in front of Emma is a blur but she can make out a mass of people a block away. The first shape she recognizes is the hair. The cropped mass of black hair that could only belong to one person. Mary Margaret.

The roommate she's now essentially lost. If everything she thinks is true, Mary Margaret is gone. The woman standing in her place is a stranger. A stranger with her face. The mother Emma thought had abandoned her.

By this point Emma's limbs are like lead. Her joints are stiff and her eyes threaten to roll back in her head. She and Henry have closed the distance between the mob and themselves, and she subconsciously replies to something Mary Margaret says. Emma can't even register what it was.

The minute this woman, her mother, turns around her vision clears and her chest begins to hurt. The closer Mary Margaret, or whoever she is now, gets to her, the more painful the tightness near her heart becomes. It spreads to her lungs and she immediately loses the ability to breathe. But she's frozen.

Hands reach up and grasp her face. She chokes, gasping for air and her eyes water from the pain. Or is she crying? She can't tell. Everything is a swirling mass around her. Her vision is dark and misconstrued, there is no sound, and the life is being crushed out of her as her former roommate releases her from a hug. She steps back, her body is shaking; she's gone too long without air.

Emma suddenly turns grey, reaches out toward Snow as if to ask for help, and then her body gives out and she plummets toward the ground.

Charming's arms are under is daughter's form within a second, stopping her inches from the ground, but not leaving him uninjured. His knuckles clash painfully with the asphalt and he's sure he drew blood. But for the time being, it doesn't matter. He's focusing on his daughter.

"Emma?" Snow is at his side calling her to wake up. He can hear Henry asking worried questions, and Granny is instructing Red to run down to the hospital and look for Whale.

Charming holds Emma's upper body in his lap and Snow frantically grabs at the blonde's face, as though doing so would magically awaken her. Her fingers slip out of her glove and travel to the woman's neck, checking for any signs of life.

There's a beating beneath them, Emma's alright, just unconscious. However, her breathing is frighteningly shallow.

"Charming we need to get her to the hospital, we can't wait for someone to come," Snow breathes. She won't risk her daughter's life by waiting. Who knows what could have caused this collapse.

Immediately Charming laces his arms under Emma's back and legs and with a grunt, lifts her into his arms and stands up. His right hand screams at him, but he refuses to let her go. After gaining his footing, he takes off down the street with Snow, Henry and the dwarves at his side. He can feel his heart pounding heavily and rapidly in his chest. He hasn't been this afraid, or felt this anguish and foreboding before. _This must be what it's like to have your child in danger._

As they walk, Emma's head hangs limp over his arm and her golden hair is left at the mercy of the breeze. She almost looks asleep.

Despite the stress and urgency of the situation, just for a moment, Charming imagines that she's just a child, sleeping soundly in his arms as her carries her to her chambers for the night. This is the image he holds in his mind as they burst into the hospital.

"What do you mean _exposed to magic_?" Snow asks, worry and confusion dripping from each word. She sits in the chair next the bed where Emma lays still unconscious. She's clutching the blonde's hand, more for her own sanity than that of her daughter.

Blue sighs. "There is magic in the air. That cloud must have brought it here. The reason that Emma has seemingly collapsed is because she's never been around it in such a heavy concentration before. Such a sudden onslaught of it was too much for her to handle."

Charming's arm moves around Henry's shoulders and he asks, "Then why is Henry okay? He hasn't been exposed before either."

The Blue Fairy smiles slightly. "Henry is okay because he doesn't possess magic already. Your daughter does. She's always had some of it but it was diluted by the lack of magic in this world. The sudden arrival of full magic here awakened the fullness of her power and, like I said, her body couldn't handle such a sudden change."

All three of the Charmings wear expressions of shock and extreme worry. "She'll be fine, I promise," Blue assures them. "When she has adjusted she'll wake up on her own."

"But..." Snow utters softly, glancing at her daughter. "She has _magic_? How is this possible? Neither Charming nor I have ever possessed it."

The former nun only smiles. "Your daughter is the embodiment of true love, _your _true love. This power is what allowed her to break the curse. She doesn't possess power like that of Regina; what she has is much stronger. She IS magic, in its purest and most powerful form. What that means for what she can do with it remains to be seen. When the time comes I would be happy to assist in guiding her through it."

Snow and Charming are baffled but Henry only grins. "I knew she was special!" he exclaims proudly, garnering a laugh from the three adults in the room.

"She'll be fine. I promise," Blue reassures them again, "She's strong, and very much like you both. She saved us all and now she will be a great figure of hope for this town. You should be proud."

Both parents smile. They are proud.

There is a long road ahead of them, starting with a proper reunion, and then many inevitable nights of stories and broken spirits. But in the end they will all be a family, and Emma would finally have what she has always dreamt of.

With a dash of magic on the side.

**Reviews are appreciated :) I'll also be posting an Emma and Snow 3-shot tomorrow or over the weekend.**


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